PARAMOUNT and BOOM! Studios Announce THE GODFATHER Comic Series

Press Release

Entertainment Weekly's greatest movie of all time becomes a comic book this winter, thanks to a new licensing agreement between Paramount Pictures and BOOM! Studios. THE GODFATHER makes comic book and graphic novel readers an offer they cannot refuse.

BOOM! Studios is planning to publish a graphic novel and a series of mini-series based on the iconic Mario Puzo-penned novel and films beginning in Winter 2007. The series will be written by an as-yet-unannounced writer ("Jaws will drop," says Richie) and the first arc will be illustrated by BOOM! veteran Greg Scott, whose previous BOOM! titles include X ISLE and ENIGMA CIPHER.

"Marvel Comics has recently set the bar really high with their Stephen King Dark Tower comics series," says BOOM! co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Ross Richie. "Which brings a lot of new readers into the medium -- a sort of 'gateway comic book.' But I think there's terrific potential with the Godfather to read a mass audience that's never read comics."

"The thing about THE GODFATHER," says Chip Mosher, BOOM! Studios' Marketing and Sales Director, "is how recognizable it is. All around the world, people know the movie, they quote lines from it in every day. Who doesn't recognize Marlon Brando as Don Corleone?"

That cultural awareness is what BOOM! is banking on. Expect to see Brando's unmistakable visage throughout the new series.

"We're able to use Brando's likeness," says Richie, "which means we can tell Young Vito stories, Old Vito stories ... we're really going to flesh out and expand on the world of THE GODFATHER in a new and dynamic way that really hasn't been done before, exploiting the visual storytelling that comics can do in ways that TV, film, and novels can't."

BOOM! has gone through a growth spurt like no other publisher this past year. At the 2007 Book Expo in New York, BOOM! announced their new mass market book distribution deal via Perseus, a unique relationship for a comic book publisher that positions BOOM! with one of the market leaders to book retailers. Perseus just recently acquired Publisher's Group West out of bankruptcy and continues to grow and expand its market reach.

By the end of this summer, BOOM! will be offering a line of trade paperback graphic novels collecting their popular series, including TALENT, HERO SQUARED, TAG, DEATH VALLEY, and X ISLE.

In the last twelve months, BOOM! has sold three of its comic book series to Hollywood: THE FOUNDATION was just bought in a preemptive pre-publication bid by Paramount Pictures, while Universal Studios bought TALENT and TAG last year.

Last December's launch of WARHAMMER 40,000: DAMNATION CRUSADE initiated a new, successful series of comic books and graphic novels followed up by the summer's launch of WARHAMMER: FORGE OF WAR. BOOM! enjoys the unique position of being one of only four licensors of Games Workshop material, and will continue to grow and expand its line of WARHAMMER 40,000 and WARHAMMER series.

Following on the heels of its success with these comics, BOOM! announced a comic book and graphic novels license with Epic Games' mega-selling GEARS OF WAR video game. This fall will see a huge launch for this exciting new property.